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Sure. Globalization produces losers. Real ones. This guy's life is worse than it was, likely persistently so. We can recognize that, and say it sucks. But

Sure. Globalization produces losers. Real ones. This guy's life is worse than it was, likely persistently so. We can recognize that, and say it sucks. But someone else's life is better, likely persistently so. That job didn't vanish, it relocated. That doesn't erase the suffering. But it does suggest that the kind of snotty performative anti-globalism that started this thread is, at best, shortsighted.

gaius 8y ago
That job didn't vanish, it relocated. That's subtly not true; the very nature of the job changed. It started off as a job-for-life type job, supposedly secure, didn't quite work out that way, but that was the original intent. Now it's a mobile offshore job, that is fully intended to keep moving every few years chasing whatever location is cheaper and less regulated.
NeedMoreTea 8y ago
Sure, right now it doesn't affect you. It's not snotty or short sighted though. Eventually we can recognise the pattern, and see it's the raison d'être of globalisation. Separate commerce from state, community and people. One day you'll have seen this happen so many times, to so many people, that you decide the cost is probably too high. Perhaps by then you've done so OK that you still don't care. The next town over that never recovered from losing it's steel mill, mine or shipyard, and the fifty and sixty year olds that can't have a comfortable retirement or pay the last 25% of the mortgage. Sure, they may retrain - if the courses are available. No chance of even 25% of their former highly skilled wage, maybe end up in an unskilled role in a store or call centre. No way to make another degree pay at that stage of life. A life of no opportunity and possibly anti-depressants. The damage to everyone who lives in the same town even if they worked elsewhere. It's a constant. One day it'll be your industry or skill that relocated or ceased to be. Or of those you care for. Just for another dollar for the shareholder. But hey, someone's life is better. With all that GDP real-terms growth we should be able to find a variation on the theme that ruins fewer lives.
- aetherson 8y ago
  Yep, it (probably) will be my industry or skill at one point, and I'll probably be pissed about it then. But it'll still be the case that if someone does my job for cheaper than I do, it'll be because they're poorer than I am, and if I had a neutral perspective on my own situation (which of course I won't), I'd have a hard time making the case that I deserved to be paid more while that guy struggled in poverty. And incidentally also whatever product or service I'm producing now costs less to the people who consume it, making them de facto wealthier.

gaius 8y ago

That job didn't vanish, it relocated. That's subtly not true; the very nature of the job changed. It started off as a job-for-life type job, supposedly secure, didn't quite work out that way, but that was the original intent. Now it's a mobile offshore job, that is fully intended to keep moving every few years chasing whatever location is cheaper and less regulated.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

Sure, right now it doesn't affect you. It's not snotty or short sighted though. Eventually we can recognise the pattern, and see it's the raison d'être of globalisation. Separate commerce from state, community and people. One day you'll have seen this happen so many times, to so many people, that you decide the cost is probably too high. Perhaps by then you've done so OK that you still don't care. The next town over that never recovered from losing it's steel mill, mine or shipyard, and the fifty and sixty year olds that can't have a comfortable retirement or pay the last 25% of the mortgage. Sure, they may retrain - if the courses are available. No chance of even 25% of their former highly skilled wage, maybe end up in an unskilled role in a store or call centre. No way to make another degree pay at that stage of life. A life of no opportunity and possibly anti-depressants. The damage to everyone who lives in the same town even if they worked elsewhere. It's a constant. One day it'll be your industry or skill that relocated or ceased to be. Or of those you care for. Just for another dollar for the shareholder. But hey, someone's life is better. With all that GDP real-terms growth we should be able to find a variation on the theme that ruins fewer lives.

aetherson 8y ago
Yep, it (probably) will be my industry or skill at one point, and I'll probably be pissed about it then. But it'll still be the case that if someone does my job for cheaper than I do, it'll be because they're poorer than I am, and if I had a neutral perspective on my own situation (which of course I won't), I'd have a hard time making the case that I deserved to be paid more while that guy struggled in poverty. And incidentally also whatever product or service I'm producing now costs less to the people who consume it, making them de facto wealthier.